There may be enough oxygen in the waters of Jupiter's moon Europa to support millions of tons worth of fish, according to a new study. And while nobody is suggesting there might actually be fish on Europa, this finding suggests the Jovian satellite could be capable of supporting the kinds of life familiar to us here on Earth, if only in microbial form.

Europa, which is roughly the size of Earth's moon, is enveloped by a global ocean about 100 miles deep (160 kilometers), with an icy crust that may be only a few miles thick.

As I understand it, the oceans on Earth were too turbulent for the building blocks of life to originally coalesce. Instead, shallow tidal pools close to shore are the likely location for this. There, proto-viruses could spawn in a calmer environment. A virus is basically just a fragile strand of chemically encoded instructions in the form of RNA that lives in its food, which in this case would be the amino acids suspended in the pool of water. Although, not technically organisms, a mutating virus may be the first rung on the ladder of life. Only after hardier organisms with outer cell membranes evolved did they spread to the oceans. So where would the calm waters be in a super ocean constantly churned by the gravity of Jupiter? Molecules happen for a scientific reason and the molecules of life are no different.

As I understand it, the oceans on Earth were too turbulent for the building blocks of life to originally coalesce.

I have not heard this specific suggestion before. Do you have a source?
The turbulence of surface waters, generating large numbers of water droplets rich in organic material, have been suggested as one means by which environments for primitve metabolisms were established.

Originally Posted by Arch2008

Instead, shallow tidal pools close to shore are the likely location for this.

Darwin's 'warm little pond' has largely been discarded in favour of black smokers. Personally, I think its a move in the wrong direction, but what do I know?

Originally Posted by Arch2008

There, proto-viruses could spawn in a calmer environment. .

I understood the consensus view is that viruses are degraded life forms, not a form of proto life. Present day viruses cannot function without the cellular machinery of their invaded host.

Originally Posted by Arch2008

So where would the calm waters be in a super ocean constantly churned by the gravity of Jupiter?

Churned? You are being rather poetic, aren't you. Powerful currents may exist, but if you are a group of molecules lying within a powerful current then relatively speaking you are at rest.
I can't generate turbulent flow from Jupiter's gravity in a Europan ocean in any back of the envelope calculation. Can you?

Well, again, we don’t know how atoms became organisms, but Isaac Asimov in his book “The Wellsprings of Life” described proto-viruses as a possibility for the first “life” form. RNA has fewer pieces to its puzzle than DNA, so it would arguably form more easily. As you mention, a cell already has a lot of “machinery” that first had to evolve from something simpler. Once you have something with genetically encoded information, like a virus, all it has to do is mutate to add information randomly to its code that becomes this machinery. I heard that black smokers only exist for a million years or so and that this was (perhaps) not enough time for life to evolve. As to the churning, if there is an ocean it is because of tidal flexing.

Actually, one might say that after nearly a half century, the RNA World Hypothesis is still considered significant. Science applies just as much to what we don’t know as to what we do. Why should we go through the universe as some kind of Ponce De Leon desperately looking for the Fountain of Life. Atoms stick together because of electromagnetism. Some molecules form stronger bonds than others (ionic or covalent). Molecules happen for a reason and this applies to the original molecules of life. We don’t have to watch a group of giant nebulae for a billion years to know how they would collapse into a galaxy cluster. We understand the physics of it and we can run a computer simulation of the process. We should be able to learn the process that turned atoms into organisms. Then we can stop playing guessing games and get back to exploring the universe.

I was looking for life on Europa I would look at the ice-ocean interface and within the ice itself. I would speculate that life forming in such locations would be easier than having it happen "mid-ocean", as it were.

Cyberia wrote (Sorry, can't get quote to work): "Some believe life on Earth began around volcanic vents on the ocean floor. I don't know if Europa has it's equivalence?"
Europa is too small to be geologically active. So it can't have volcanic heat source.

Cyberia wrote (Sorry, can't get quote to work): "Some believe life on Earth began around volcanic vents on the ocean floor. I don't know if Europa has it's equivalence?"
Europa is too small to be geologically active. So it can't have volcanic heat source.

Not really true. Io, is about the same size and probably the most geologically active place in the solar system.

Io is incredibly active. As Lynx says it is the most active planet in the solar system. I think the oldests part of its surface i measured in millions of years only: a total contrast with the rest of the sytem.

However its activity is due to the intense tidal flexing that occurs, with tides raising and lowering the surface by around 30m each orbit. (It is tidally locked with Jupiter.) Europa is further out and so does not experience the same amount of tidal flexure and so less heat would be generated - but keep itn mind if ther eis liquid water then we already know it's got to be quite hot.

the outside of europa is frozen solid and the inside is is a heated core creating an ocean inside.... whats to stop it from heating up more or breaking through the ice? if jupiters gravity stretches the moon wouldn't it by now have found some way of breaking through the ice to reveal the hidden ocean? or is it by some miraculous chance of one in a zillion chance that with other satellites and jupiter it creates a perfect balance to how much ice covers the moon and still continues a constant heating source within the center.... and with the iron core... its just a theory... its what they think it is... its just a guess.

while we are throwing guesses out there, maybe it was just a comet that collided with jupiter creating the hotspot (meant to say the great red spot :P and got stuck into Jupiters gravitational orbit forming the now Europa ice moon..... i hate things that are not clearly shown with proof or clarity which makes me question every question involving the universe...... O.o

~I'm telling you, you have to go over there and get it done..... But WHY?~